A man named Quokka finds a home in Slab City

“It’s going to be roughly 20 feet deep from the ceiling, from that point another 10 feet down, and then there’s maybe a second floor if I don’t hit a water table. I don’t know if I’m going to hit a water table yet until I start digging, for sure.”

Sorry, I’m confused.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve actually just got approved by the Navy department of records for blueprints of this base as it was. I’m just waiting for them to mail them to me.

“I have a high security clearance available to this day. There’s lots of things I can access and show people that would rattle the foundation of their religion even. I’ve done projects with FEMA and even helped build a FEMA prison camp.”

He proudly walks a few paces away to show where excavation for his underground dwelling has already begun. He stops, turns, and points to a hole in the ground maybe four feet deep with a diameter of about five feet.

The Chunnel under the English Channel, we must remember, at one point was also only four feet deep.

Back to Quokka the man. He explains with considerable animation that he comes to Slab City following Marine tours in Iran and Afghanistan, then in “black ops” which is the name for experts in lethality who do James Bond things for the U.S. around the world.

What was the worst experience you had in black ops?

“(It was) when I had to infiltrate a hostage situation with a French politician, and I had to rescue his daughter from them. They were using her as collateral bait to kind of force the French government to do something against the Geneva Convention so they hired me through the United States government to rescue his daughter.”

Don’t they have black ops types in France?

“They got the Foreign Legion. It’s one of the best known as far as combat trained forces in the world. I trained with them for six months so I know what they’re capable of.”

He also tells about killing a Taliban who was trying to blow up the U.S. Bank in Los Angeles.

“This was actually about three or four months ago. Yep, I snapped his neck. The police at first (put me) in cuffs when they got there. I was about to go to jail, and I (said), ‘Oh no, no. Check that bag. I disarmed it. It’s now safe. I took care of the main threat, and this Taliban guy right here. He’s been taken care of.’ He was dead, of course.”

Quokka speaks freely of his addiction to crystal meth, and is asked to describe its effect.

“It gave me the energy to do everything I always wanted to do, (with) no sleep at all. At the point where I started losing many teeth”—at this point he removes his upper plate to prove it—“I was losing my family and my friends and burning all those bridges. I just woke up one day (and) said ‘I don’t need this s--- no more.’ I just stopped.